Expired

This rose was fresh and fragrant ten days ago but, as expected, it is now dried up and looking diminished. If I had presented this flower, in this condition, to my wife for our anniversary I think she would not have been pleased, Yet, one could argue that even now a certain beauty persists. Similar to the aging process us humans undergo, time imprints its mark, but our essence remains beautiful, although transformed.

It is worth noting that the image was captured utilizing the macro lens of my iPhone 15 Pro, which the device automatically selected. The advancements in mobile photography are nothing short of remarkable. No longer a novelty, smartphones have evolved to adeptly handle many photographic situations.

Seed pod

Stopping for a drink

I promised not to post too many animal portraits, but there are a few that I particularly like from the Africa trip. Here I was able to catch this leopard stopping for some water... you know it is important to keep hydrated!

Bored @ home

So this social isolation has resulted in me taking pictures of the patio plants... it is something to do.

ECU

That's Extreme Close-Up if you don't happen to know.

Roger Cicala of LensRentals fame writes an informative and entertaining blog which I follow. He has a fun contest going on right now that I decided to enter with a version of the above photo (ECU of a cactus... the image area is only about an inch across). There are a number of categories which you can check out for yourself with this link.

The category I entered was "Largest Number of Accessories Between the Lens and the Camera" and the photo below shows my set-up.

And here is the recipe incase you want to try it too.

Olympus OMD EM-5, MFT to EOS adapter, Canon extension tube, Tamaron 1.4X telextender, LensBaby Composer, Lensbaby wide-angle adapter, Lensbaby macro close-up lens, and a bubble level on top (although not between the camera and lens, it is a bonus).